NOVANEWS
Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: White House Cabinet Member Suggested Killing an American Service Man to Justify War on Iraq
On Monday, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Hugh Shelton told told Jon Stewart that a Clinton cabinet member proposed letting Saddam kill an American pilot as a pretext for war in Iraq:
This might seem, at first glance, like just an odd, one-off suggestion.
However, as Reported by the New York Times and other newspapers, George W. Bush also suggested to Tony Blair that a U.S. plane be painted in United Nations colors so that – if Saddam shot it down – it would create a casus belli. As the Times wrote in 2006:
The memo [confirmed by two senior British officials as being authentic] also shows that the president and the prime minister acknowledged that no unconventional weapons had been found inside Iraq. Faced with the possibility of not finding any before the planned invasion, Mr. Bush talked about several ways to provoke a confrontation, including a proposal to paint a United States surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations in hopes of drawing fire ….
And it’s not just the current war in Iraq. As I’ve previously pointed out, war is always sold to it’s people by artificially demonizing the enemy:
Countries need to lie about their enemies in order to demonize them sufficiently so that the people will support the war.
That is why intelligence “failures” – such as the following – are so common:
The U.S. Navy’s own historians now say that the sinking of the USS Maine — the justification for America’s entry into the Spanish-American War — was probably caused by an internal explosion of coal, rather than an attack by the Spanish.
It is also now well-accepted that the Gulf of Tonkin Incident which led to the Vietnam war was a fiction (confirmed here).
And two lies were used to justify the 1991 Gulf War: the statement that Iraqis murdered Kuwaiti babies and the statement that a quarter of a million Iraqi troops were massed on the border with Saudi Arabia (see also this article)(technically, the statement about Kuwaiti babies did not come from the U.S. government, but from a public relations firm hired by the government).
And governments from around the world have admitted that – for many years – they have used false flag incidents to sell their people on the wars they wish to launch.
For example:
A major with the Nazi SS admitted at the Nuremberg trials that – under orders from the chief of the Gestapo – he and some other Nazi operatives faked attacks on their own people and resources which they blamed on the Poles, to justify the invasion of Poland. Nazi general Franz Halder also testified at the Nuremberg trials that Nazi leader Hermann Goering admitted to setting fire to the German parliament building, and then falsely blaming the communists for the arson
The CIA admits that it hired Iranians in the 1950’s to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its democratically-elected prime minister
Israel admits that an Israeli terrorist cell operating in Egypt planted bombs in several buildings, including U.S. diplomatic facilities, then left behind “evidence” implicating the Arabs as the culprits (one of the bombs detonated prematurely, allowing the Egyptians to identify the bombers, and several of the Israelis later confessed) (and see this and this)
The former Italian Prime Minister, an Italian judge, and the former head of Italian counterintelligence admit that NATO, with the help of the Pentagon and CIA, carried out terror bombings in Italy and other European countries in the 1950s and blamed the communists, in order to rally people’s support for their governments in Europe in their fight against communism. As one participant in this formerly-secret program stated: “You had to attack civilians, people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public, to turn to the state to ask for greater security” (and see this)(Italy and other European countries subject to the terror campaign had joined NATO before the bombings occurred)
As admitted by the U.S. government, recently declassified documents show that in the 1960’s, the American Joint Chiefs of Staff signed off on a plan to blow up AMERICAN airplanes (using an elaborate plan involving the switching of airplanes), and also to commit terrorist acts on American soil, and then to blame it on the Cubans in order to justify an invasion of Cuba. See the following ABC news report; the official documents; and watch this interview with the former Washington Investigative Producer for ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. Official State Department documents show that – only nine months before – the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other high-level officials discussed blowing up a consulate in the Dominican Republic in order to justify an invasion of that country. (While the Joint Chiefs of Staff pushed as a serious proposal for Operation Northwoods to be carried out, cooler heads fortunately prevailed; President Kennedy or his Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara apparently vetoed the plan)
The South African Truth and Reconciliation Council found that, in 1989, the Civil Cooperation Bureau (a covert branch of the South African Defense Force) approached an explosives expert and asked him “to participate in an operation aimed at discrediting the ANC [the African National Congress] by bombing the police vehicle of the investigating officer into the murder incident”, thus framing the ANC for the bombing
An Algerian diplomat and several officers in the Algerian army admit that, in the 1990s, the Algerian army frequently massacred Algerian civilians and then blamed Islamic militants for the killings (and see this video; and Agence France-Presse, 9/27/2002, French Court Dismisses Algerian Defamation Suit Against Author)
According to the Washington Post, Indonesian police admit that the Indonesian military killed American teachers in Papua in 2002 and blamed the murders on a Papuan separatist group in order to get that group listed as a terrorist organization.
The well-respected former Indonesian president also admits that the government probably had a role in the Bali bombings
As reported by BBC, the New York Times, and Associated Press, Macedonian officials admit that the government murdered 7 innocent immigrants in cold blood and pretended that they were Al Qaeda soldiers attempting to assassinate Macedonian police, in order to join the “war on terror”.
Former Department of Justice lawyer John Yoo suggested in 2005 that the US should go on the offensive against al-Qaeda, having “our intelligence agencies create a false terrorist organization. It could have its own websites, recruitment centers, training camps, and fundraising operations. It could launch fake terrorist operations and claim credit for real terrorist strikes, helping to sow confusion within al-Qaeda’s ranks, causing operatives to doubt others’ identities and to question the validity of communications.”
United Press International reported in June 2005:
U.S. intelligence officers are reporting that some of the insurgents in Iraq are using recent-model Beretta 92 pistols, but the pistols seem to have had their serial numbers erased. The numbers do not appear to have been physically removed; the pistols seem to have come off a production line without any serial numbers. Analysts suggest the lack of serial numbers indicates that the weapons were intended for intelligence operations or terrorist cells with substantial government backing. Analysts speculate that these guns are probably from either Mossad or the CIA. Analysts speculate that agent provocateurs may be using the untraceable weapons even as U.S. authorities use insurgent attacks against civilians as evidence of the illegitimacy of the resistance.
Quebec police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest were actually undercover Quebec police officers
At the G20 protests in London in 2009, a British member of parliament saw plain clothes police officers attempting to incite the crowd to violence.
There are many other instances of false flag attacks used throughout history proven by the historical evidence. See this, this and this. The above are only some examples of governments admitting to using false flag terror.
Two Children Killed In Gaza, Several Palestinians Wounded In israeli Attacks
Saed Bannoura
Medical sources in the Gaza Strip that the number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning arrived at two after a wounded resident died of his wounds
The two were killed after an explosive left by the Israeli army detonated near them. The sources added that Mo’men Hallas, 16, dies of his wounds at the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza city, shortly after suffering serious injuries.
The first child, Montaser al-Batteekhy, 16, was immediately killed when the explosive went off.
Several Palestinians were wounded in a number of Israeli military attacks in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning.
Palestinian medical sources reported Friday morning that a Palestinian child was killed in al-Shujaeyya, east of Gaza City, and another resident was seriously injured, when an explosive, left by the army during an earlier invasion, detonated near them east of Gaza City, the Arabs 48 News reported.
Adham Abu Salmiyya, spokesperson of the Emergency Unit at the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza in Gaza, reported that the body of Montaser al-Batteekhy, 16, was moved to Dar al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Abu Salmiyya added that the wounded resident was moved to the Intensive Care Unit due to the seriousness of his condition.
Also on Friday, three Palestinians were wounded by army fire in northern and southern Gaza.
Two of them were wounded while collecting wood north of Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Furthermore, a 16-year-old child, from Khuza’a in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, was shot and wounded while working in his family’s land near the border.
Israeli troops frequently attack farmers and laborers who work in Palestinian lands located near the border fence.
Soldiers do not allow the Palestinians to approach the border fence under claims of preventing infiltrations into Israel or into nearby military camps.
Leaks Suggest Iran Is Now Winning in the Middle East
By Juan Cole
December 07, 2010 “Truthdig” — Iran is winning and Israel is losing. That is the startling conclusion we reach if we consider how things have changed in the Middle East in the two years since most of the WikiLeaks State Department cables about Iran’s regional difficulties were written. Lebanon’s Sunni prime minister, once a virulent critic, quietly made his pilgrimage to the Iranian capital last week. Israeli hopes of separating Syria from Iran have been dashed. Turkey, once a strong ally of Israel, is now seeking better relations with Iran and with Lebanon’s Shiites.
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s visit to Iran was in part an attempt to reach out to a major foreign patron of his country’s Shiite Hezbollah Party. Hariri’s father, Rafiq, was mysteriously blown to kingdom come in 2005, and a United Nations tribunal is now rumored to be leaning toward implicating Hezbollah. Many Lebanese are terrified that the tribunal’s findings might set Kalashnikovs clattering again in Beirut, given that the Hariris are Sunni Muslims linked to Saudi Arabia, and their followers could attack Lebanese Shiites in reprisal. Lebanon, a small country of 4 million, is more than a third Shiite, but Christians and Sunni Muslims have formed the political elite for two centuries.
Hariri’s consultations with the ayatollahs in Tehran were an attempt to seek Iranian help in keeping Hezbollah militiamen in check (many Lebanese Shiites look to Iran as their external patron, just as many Sunnis look to Saudi Arabia and Christians to France and the U.S.). The talks also aimed at reconfirming Iranian pledges of economic aid to Beirut. In return, according to one anonymous Iranian source who spoke to Agence France-Presse, Hariri would throw his support behind Iran’s “development of nuclear capabilities for civilian and peaceful purposes.”
If true, it is a 180 degree turn. According to The New York Times, an August 2006 cable reports that Saad Hariri had said that “Iraq was unnecessary” but “Iran is necessary,” and that the U.S. “must be willing to go all the way if need be” to halt Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, should negotiations prove fruitless. As late as March 2008, according to another leaked cable published on the Al-Akhbar newspaper website, Lebanon’s Minister of Defense Elias Murr, a Christian, passed along advice on how the Israelis could effectively fight Hezbollah without alienating the Christian Lebanese, as Tel Aviv had with its bombing of the Christian north in 2006. (Murr now disputes the account in the cable.)
Not only has Hariri radically altered his discourse about Iran, but he has made an even more incredible turnaround regarding Iran’s best friend, Syria. In the past two years, President Michel Sleiman and Hariri have energetically sought a rapprochement with Syria, one of Hezbollah’s patrons. They sought to repair ties with Damascus that had been badly damaged by Beirut’s accusations that Syria backed the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, which had led to massive anti-Syrian demonstrations and the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. Hariri now says he was wrong to accuse Damascus. The growing influence in Lebanon of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad has alarmed the Obama administration.
Likewise, during the past two years, Turkey has increasingly offered Lebanon its coat strings as a rising Middle Eastern regional power. Ankara and Beirut have concluded a treaty creating a free trade zone between the two countries, which Turkey hopes to expand to Syria and Jordan. In sharp contrast to the ambivalence of Lebanon’s own Sunnis and Christians, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to Beirut on Nov. 23 and warned Israel, “If you invade Lebanon and Gaza using the most modern tanks and you destroy schools and hospitals, don’t expect us to be silent about it. We will not be silent, but will support what is right.” Erdogan also defended Hezbollah from rumors that it had itself been implicated in the elder Hariri’s assassination, saying that “no one could imagine” that the organization, which called itself Lebanon’s “spirit of resistance,” had been involved in the killing.
Turkey’s defense of Hezbollah tracked with Ankara’s improved relations with Iran itself. Turkey attempted to run interference at the United Nations Security Council for Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. When the council voted to ratchet up economic sanctions on Iran on June 9, Turkey and Brazil voted against the measure, while Lebanon abstained.
From 2005 through 2006, Iran appeared to be on the retreat in the eastern Mediterranean. Pro-Western Sunnis and Christians took over in Beirut. Syria was expelled from Lebanon and there was talk of detaching it from Iran. The powerful generals of Turkey, a NATO member and ally of Israel, were reliably anti-Iranian. Now, Hariri is a supplicant in Tehran, Syria is again influential in Beirut, and a Turkey newly comfortable with Islam has emerged as a regional power and a force for economic and diplomatic integration of Iran and Syria into the Middle East. Iran’s political breakthroughs in the region have dealt a perhaps irreparable blow to the hopes of the United States and Israel for a new anti-Iranian axis in the region that would align Iran’s Arab and other neighbors with Tel Aviv.
Juan Cole, the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, maintains the blog Informed Comment. His most recent book, just out in paperback, is “Engaging the Muslim World.”
Most Americans “Are Ignorant”: Zbigniew Brzezinski
December 08, 2010 “Spiegel” — Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski says that US diplomacy will continue as before despite the leak of diplomatic dispatches by WikiLeaks. He spoke with SPIEGEL about how US President Obama should react and how the American right sees the world.
SPIEGEL: Will American foreign policy ever be the same after this embarrassing leak of US diplomatic dispatches?
Brzezinski: Absolutely. There was a saying once in Vienna during the good old days of the Habsburg Empire that when things went wrong and people were asked for comment, the comment usually was: “Well, it’s catastrophic but not serious.” And that’s the way this is.
SPIEGEL: The US government sounds more alarmed.
Brzezinski: Most of the cables revealed consistency with what the United States said publicly. There may be some embarrassing things, but basically, business will go on as usual. Our cables aren’t very different from the cables the German ambassadors send or Russian ambassadors or Chinese or French.
SPIEGEL: These nations are deeply offended by the indiscretions, though. Could the Americans recall ambassadors to mend fences?
Brzezinski: I would think not, unless there is something in the cables that an ambassador has said about a senior statesman of the country to which he’s assigned, which would preclude any degree of personal relationship between the ambassador and that senior statesman.
SPIEGEL: The US Ambassador in Berlin, Philip Murphy, wrote a very unflattering report on German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. He called him “arrogant” and “opportunistic” and concluded: He is no Genscher.
Brzezinski: That may make it more difficult, although Murphy probably deals more seriously with the chancellor than the foreign minister, given the nature of the German arrangements.
SPIEGEL: So it will return to business as usual? Really?
Brzezinski: There are slightly mystifying aspects to this whole operation. I do see some strange degree of emphasis on some issues.
SPIEGEL: For example?
Brzezinski: Just look at the degree of emphasis that has been put in the initial wave of revelations on discrediting several pro-American Arab governments by highlighting their demands for military action against Iran. That could be very troublesome within some Arab countries. It’s also interesting that so much emphasis is put on leaks that could be calculated deliberately to damage American-Turkish relations.
SPIEGEL: In any case, the overall picture that emerges is that of a disoriented world power. Nowadays, America has to rely on very unreliable partners in important regions of the world. It knows next to nothing about dangerous foes like North Korea. And it is extremely wary of an ever stronger China.
Brzezinski: Is any of that news? America has relied on unstable partners throughout its history. And it is clear that China is historically self-confident while we feel the historical forces are against us.
SPIEGEL: US officials say the leaks might endanger the effort to improve relations with Russia. Is that a serious concern?
Brzezinski: Not to me at this stage, unless someone shows me things which I should consider in that light.
SPIEGEL: A Georgian ambassador has charged Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with corruption. Some reports describe Russia as a modern mafia state.
Brzezinski: Everyone knows that there are allegations that he is extremely rich. Then the question is how you become rich when you are a public servant, and, of course, there is a well-known answer to that.
SPIEGEL: Also, Putin is described as an alpha male while President Dmitri Medvedev is perceived as somewhat of a weakling. Would you agree?
Brzezinski: There is some reason to share that view. After all, Medvedev was hand-picked by Putin. But it is also a fact that Medvedev is now beginning to surface much more as a serious player. I had an opportunity to participate in a meeting with him in Moscow four weeks ago, and he struck me as a very self-confident person with his own individual views on foreign policy. We will know within a year or so whether Medvedev now has genuinely independent support.
SPIEGEL: The dispatches show how European leaders are clamoring for access in Washington and the US coolly plays them against each other.
Brzezinski: Interrelationships between people are affected by respective hierarchies, who is on top, who is less on top. Anyone familiar with royal courts knows that. And the US descriptions of Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel or Silvio Berlusconi basically fit thousands of cartoons that have appeared about them.
SPIEGEL: As National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, you tried to prepare Americans for a more multipolar world — one with a stronger China and a weaker US. Americans did not like that idea and Carter was voted out of office after one term.
Brzezinski: That concept is now very much a reality when you look at the rise of countries like China and India.
SPIEGEL: And the American decline. Are Americans aware of that trend or does the fate of Carter await President Barak Obama should he openly address the issue?
Brzezinski: I am very worried that most Americans are close to total ignorance about the world. They are ignorant. That is an unhealthy condition in a country in which foreign policy has to be endorsed by the people if it is to be pursued. And it makes it much more difficult for any president to pursue an intelligent policy that does justice to the complexity of the world.
SPIEGEL: Yet the American right is still convinced of American exceptionalism.
Brzezinski: That is a reaction to the inability of people to understand global complexity or important issues like American energy dependency. Therefore, they search for simplistic sources of comfort and clarity. And the people that they are now selecting to be, so to speak, the spokespersons of their anxieties are, in most cases, stunningly ignorant.
SPIEGEL: If you were still national security advisor, how would you tell President Barack Obama to react to WikiLeaks?
Brzezinski: To relax and to carry on. His basic instincts on the large issues of foreign policy are fundamentally correct and in tune with history,
SPIEGEL: Just his instincts? Not his policies?
Brzezinski: There is a lack of strategic implementation. Look at the standstill in the Middle East. The hesitation on Iran is another, and the absence of a kind of shared strategic perspective with the Europeans on Russia. To tackle this, it will require more of an effort to correct than if he had been more energetic and more committed to push forward with his world view shortly after the assumption of office.
Interview conducted by Gregor Peter Schmitz for Der Spiegel
US strike kills three Afghan women
Three women have been killed when a US remote-controlled drone fired a rocket at a car in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province.
The spokesman for the Helmand governor’s office, Dawood Ahmadi, said that the incident took place late on Wednesday in Nad Ali district of the province.
The target of the air strike was an alleged Taliban commander. The three women were said to be the commander’s wife, sister and mother-in-law. The alleged militant was also killed in the attack.
Taliban have concentrated their nine-year fight against the US-led forces in Afghanistan’s southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.
NATO and the United States have close to 150,000 troops in Afghanistan, with 30,000 deployed in Helmand.
The Western public opinion is growing increasingly tired of the war. Deaths of civilians in NATO and US attacks have also fueled tensions between President Hamid Karzai and his Western allies.
A total of 683 foreign soldiers have been killed in the Afghan war so far this year, eclipsing the previous record of 521 in 2009.
The number of fatalities among foreign troops in war-ravaged Afghanistan stands at 13 in December. June remains the worst month for foreign military casualties with a death toll of 103.
The American army has lost 1,423 soldiers since October 2001 when Washington unleashed the US-led invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow Taliban militants. Thousands of civilians have died and many others sustained injuries in US-led operations in Afghanistan.
Roadside bombs, or Improvised Explosive Device, (IEDs) are by far the most lethal weapon Taliban militants have used against foreign troops, Afghan forces as well as civilians.
WikiLeaks Cables Show Deeper U.S. Military Role in Muslim World
By SHASHANK BENGALI
McClatchy Newspapers
December 10, 2010 “Miami Herald” – – From the Saudi-Yemen border to lawless Somalia and the north-central African desert, the U.S. military is more engaged in armed conflicts in the Muslim world than the U.S. government openly acknowledges, according to cables released by the WikiLeaks website.
U.S. officials have struck relationships with regimes that generally aren’t considered allies in the war against terrorism, and while the cables show U.S. diplomats admonishing the regimes to respect the laws of war, they also underscore the perils of using advanced military technologies in complex, remote battlefields with sometimes shifty friends.
Cables released this week indicate that the United States:
-Provided Saudi Arabia with satellite imagery to help direct airstrikes against Shiite rebels after earlier strikes resulted in civilian casualties.
-Collaborated with Algerian forces in 2006 and 2007 to capture militants allegedly bound for Iraq and, more recently, obtained permission to fly U.S. surveillance planes through Algerian airspace to hunt suspected al-Qaida members.
-Killed a militant Islamist leader in a 2008 airstrike in Somalia and, later, fielded requests from Somali officials to “take out” more suspected militants.
Experts said that the revelations of secretive American operations in Muslim countries could offer fodder to Islamist militants who accuse the United States of aggression against Muslims and of siding with authoritarian and unpopular regimes.
“This kind of feeds the al-Qaida narrative, that we’re doing it everywhere,” said Lawrence J. Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington and a former Pentagon official in the Reagan administration.
The Pentagon hasn’t acknowledged its role in Saudi Arabia’s sporadic fight against a Yemeni Shiite group known as the Houthi.
But a cable from the U.S. embassy in Riyadh says that in February, a senior Saudi defense official asked the U.S. for satellite maps of its border with Yemen to help the underequipped Saudi air force target the rebels, and the U.S. ambassador, James B. Smith, agreed.
A previous Saudi airstrike had hit a medical clinic, while another bombing run turned back when pilots learned that the target – selected by the Yemeni government – wasn’t a rebel site but instead the headquarters of a political opponent of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The strikes “were necessarily being conducted without the desired degree of precision,” said the Saudi official, Prince Khaled bin Sultan. When Smith produced a satellite image of the bomb-damaged clinic, bin Sultan suggested that his air force needed more advanced aircraft.
“If we had the Predator, maybe we would not have this problem,” he said, referring to a drone aircraft the U.S. has used extensively in strikes on suspected terrorists in Pakistan and elsewhere.
The cable said that Smith agreed to furnish the Saudis with the satellite imagery because, while the Houthi clashes appeared to be dying down, the imagery would help Saudi forces keep a better eye on suspected al-Qaida activity in that area.
In the meeting, however, bin Sultan said that the more immediate priority for his government was reaching a cease-fire with Yemen and the Houthi.
“Then,” the prince said, “we can concentrate on al-Qaida.”
Peter Singer, the director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the center-left Brookings Institution in Washington, said the exchange illustrates the dangers of U.S. forces relying on local allies who have other objectives.
“There are no guarantees that our ally might not also use the tools against another of their enemies – indeed, they would be almost remiss not to,” Singer said. “The end result is that you may get the action you may have wanted, but you also incur all sorts of unexpected side effects, including in these cases being drawn into local disputes that aren’t fully in our strategic interests.”
Cables also show that the U.S. military has established a partnership with Algeria to combat al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, one of the terrorist organization’s most fearsome franchises.
In February 2008, U.S. officials in Algiers reported that they’d worked with Algerian military intelligence – a “prickly, paranoid group,” according to a cable – to root out networks funneling dozens of militants to Iraq. However, the cable noted that Algerian authorities “do not like to discuss our cooperation” publicly, and that while the FBI had opened an office at the U.S. Embassy, “the Algerians are not rushing to cooperate.”
Late last year, U.S. officials asked – and promptly received – permission to fly EP-3 surveillance aircraft through Algerian airspace to hunt militants. However, two months earlier, senior Algerian defense officials complained to a visiting U.S. diplomat that the U.S. military hadn’t shared information from previous surveillance flights.
In Somalia, the Pentagon acknowledged at the time that a 2008 U.S. airstrike killed Aden Hashi Ayro, an Afghanistan-trained jihadist who U.S. officials thought was al-Qaida’s “point man” in the East African nation. It remained unclear, however, whether the U.S. military was coordinating with Somalia’s weak and unpopular transitional government, which has been battling al-Shabaab, the Islamist militia that Ayro led, since 2007.
A May 2009 account of a meeting between U.S. officials and the Somali prime minister didn’t specifically refer to the Ayro strike, but it said that the Somali government thought such strikes were “necessary” and discussed a phone call two weeks earlier in which the country’s prime minister had asked the U.S. to “take out” insurgents that Somali officials had learned were meeting in a remote southern town.
The cable was the result of a brief meeting between U.S. officials from the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Somali prime minister, Omar Sharmarke, who’d stopped over at Nairobi’s airport on his way from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, to a meeting in Libya. The U.S. has no diplomats in Somalia.
During the meeting, Sharmarke mentioned that his May 16 phone call to U.S. military officials in Kenya asking for actions against the militants had been made with the consent of Somalia’s President Sheikh Sharif.
Such strikes had angered the Somali population previously, however, and U.S. officials asked Sharmarke whether his government could withstand fallout from additional strikes “and their potential collateral damage.”
The prime minister, the cable recounted, “without hesitation, said ‘Yes.’ “
© 2010 Miami Herald Media Company.
Israel denies Vanunu travel permission
Mordechai VanunuIsrael has prevented a former nuclear whistleblower from receiving an international prize in Germany for work towards promoting disarmament.
Mordechai Vanunu, who revealed details of Israel’s secret weapons program 24 years ago, was to be awarded the Carl von Ossietsky Prize in Berlin on Sunday.
According to a spokesman for the International League for Human Rights, the group has now decided to cancel the ceremony and hold a protest rally on behalf of the former nuclear technician instead, AFP reported.
The League had previously called on Tel Aviv to allow Vanunu to participate in the ceremony and Vanunu’s attorney Michael Sfard had assured Israeli officials that the 56-year old atomic technician was willing to commit himself to returning to Israel following the ceremony in Berlin.
Vanunu was convicted of treason and spent 18 years in jail after disclosing the inner workings of Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant to the Sunday Times newspaper in 1986 backed up by two rolls of film he had taken of the plant.
He was released in 2004 but was banned from travel and giving interviews to foreign media without prior permission.
Estimated to have more than 200 nuclear warheads, Israel still refuses to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and does not allow the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit its nuclear sites.
Israeli drone flies over south Lebanon
An Israeli long-range Heron drone, file photoAn Israeli reconnaissance aircraft has penetrated the Lebanese airspace and flown over parts of the country in flagrant violation of a UN Security Council resolution.
The Israeli aircraft crossed into Lebanese airspace at 7:10 a.m. local time (0410 GMT) on Wednesday and conducted several unwarranted flights over areas in southern Lebanon, including Alma al-Shaab town, a statement released by the Lebanese military said Friday.
The remote-controlled drone left at 18:05 p.m. local time (1505 GMT) while flying over the village of al-Naqoura, located 91 km (57 miles) south of the capital Beirut.
Israel violates Lebanon’s airspace on an almost daily basis, claiming they serve surveillance purposes.
Lebanon’s government, the Hezbollah resistance movement and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, have repeatedly cited Israel’s air surveillance flights over Lebanon as a clear violation of UN resolution 1701 and the country’s sovereignty.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which brokered a ceasefire in the war Israel launched against Lebanon in the summer of 2006, calls on Israel to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In 2009, Beirut complained to the United Nations about Israeli aircraft violating its airspace over the south of the country.
‘Turkish officials say Barak preventing flotilla apology’
Ankara says defense minister and IDF don’t have problem with compensation to families, but refuse to apologize, ‘Zaman’ reports.
A senior Turkish official on Saturday told Turkish paper Today’s Zaman that domestic Israeli political considerations may be preventing a return to normal relations between the two countries. He said that the Turkish government supports the talks between the two countries that began in Geneva following Ankara’s firefighting aid to Israel during the Carmel fires last week.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek told Today’s Zaman that although he hopes “Israel continues to display a constructive approach… it seems difficult for Israel to accept those conditions because of domestic politics.” In what may have been an attempt to lower expectations of the talks, he added, “It is unlikely that the relations will develop positively in the short term.”
RELATED:
J’lem, Turkey may find resolution to flotilla legal issues
At the core of the Turkish-Israeli rift is Iran
‘Israel and Turkey meet to reduce tensions’
The report quoted a senior Turkish government official saying that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was seeking to repair diplomatic relations between the two Mediterranean states but that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are opposed to some of the central Turkish demands by Turkey for reconciliation.
The Turkish Cabinet source told Zaman that Barak sees the value in repairing relations between Turkey and Israel. He added that Barak and IDF officials do not even object to paying compensation to the families of those killed on the Mavi Marmara during a deadly March raid on the Turkish ship that was attempting to break Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip. The defense minister and military officials, however, are opposed to Jerusalem issuing an apology, according to the report.
Turkish representative to the UN flotilla inquiry panel Ozdem Sanberk said that the central point of contention between diplomats of the two countries is the word “apology,” according to Zaman. Sanberk added, “As far as it concerns the Turkish side, it has never negotiated a word other than the word ‘apology’.”
No new meetings between Israel and Turkey were currently scheduled, a Turkish Foreign Ministery spokesman said, but backed away from the implication that talks were stalled, saying, “Contacts [with Israeli officials] will continue,” according to the report.
It was reported earlier that Israel had offered to pay the families of those killed on the Mavi Marmara $100,000 each, but according to Zaman, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu denied that an offer had been made.
Madoff son found dead in New York apartment
Mark Madoff, under investigation but not charged with crimes, appears to have committed suicide.
A law enforcement official has informed The Associated Press that a son of jailed financier Bernard Madoff has been found dead in New York City of an apparent suicide.
The official says Mark Madoff was found hanged in his Manhattan apartment. A family member notified police around 7:30 a.m. Saturday.
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Bernard Madoff is serving a 150-year prison term for defrauding investors of $65 billion. |
Photo by: Bloomberg News |
The official spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t allowed to speak publicly about the case.
Mark Madoff and his brother, Andrew, were under investigation but hadn’t faced any criminal charges in the massive Ponzi scheme that led to their father’s jailing.
Bernard Madoff swindled a long list of investors out of billions of dollars and is serving a 150-year prison term.
Jewish leaders ask Pope Benedict to combat delegitimization of Israel
World Jewish Congress leaders meet with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican, call on the Catholic Church take a leading role in fighting the delegitimization of Israel.
A delegation of leaders of the World Jewish Congress met with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican on Friday and asked the pontiff to speak out against the “delegitimization” of Israel.
“We discussed critical issues affecting world Jewry,” said WJC President Ronald S. Lauder said in a statement. “[We] expressed to the Pope how much we value the close relationship we have enjoyed with the Vatican over many years in our quest for a secure Israel and a safer future for Jews everywhere.”
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Pope Benedict XVI |
Photo by: AP |
Lauder requested that the pope speak out against the “delegitimization” of Israel, particularly the denial of Jewish links to holy sites such as the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, as well as Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem – a site that is holy to both Jews and Christians.
According to the WJC statement, the pope emphasized the need to continue to combat anti-Semitism in the Christian world, which he characterized as unacceptable. The pope talked about the importance of Jews and Catholics working together to fight anti-Semitism in all its forms, noting Judaism’s patrimony to Christianity.
WJC Secretary General Designate Dan Diker asked that the Catholic Church take a leading role in the fight against the “delegitimization” of Israel, which he called a new “politically correct” form of anti-Semitism.
Pope Benedict is said to have responded, saying that the Catholic Church recognizes the deep and historical connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel and expressed his commitment to help bolster better understanding of that connection among people throughout the world.
Palestinians: Clinton should have blamed Israel for failure of Mideast talks
In speech on Friday, U.S. secretary of state said both Israel and the Palestinians bear responsibility for the failure of the recent direct peace talks.
Palestinian officials said that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton should have blamed Israel for the failure of the latest Mideast efforts.
The officials reacted on Saturday to a Clinton speech before Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy’s seventh annual forum in Washington, in which she said Israelis and Palestinians both bear responsibility for the failure of the direct talks that took place in September.
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy’s seventh annual forum in Washington, Dec. 10, 2010. |
Photo by: Reuters |
A previous series of talks held earlier this week ended with no actual deal, 
Both of the increases were already planned as part of a memorandum of understanding between the United States and Israel, but were formally approved as part of the 212-206 vote in the House on Wednesday.
In 1971 the US Supreme Court vindicated the right to publish classified data in the public interest as part of the furor surrounding the release of the Pentagon Papers. Some forty years later, 
